Bertozzi was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors available to American scientists.
On April 4, 2008, Carolyn Bertozzi was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the most prestigious honors that can be bestowed upon a scientist in the United States. Established by an Act of Congress signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the NAS recognizes individuals for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Bertozzi's election came just eight years after her appointment as an HHMI Investigator and reflected the rapidly growing recognition of her transformative contributions to chemical biology, particularly her pioneering development of bioorthogonal chemistry. At the time of her election, her research had already begun to reshape how scientists studied glycans and other biomolecules within living systems.
Membership in the National Academy of Sciences is achieved through election by current members, based on distinguished and continuing achievements in original research, making it a peer-recognized honor rather than an award applied for or granted by external committee. Fewer than approximately 2,500 active members are elected across the Academy's history, reflecting its extreme selectivity.
This 2008 election placed Bertozzi among an elite group of American scientists years before her Nobel Prize, cementing her reputation within the highest echelons of the domestic scientific establishment and paving the way for her subsequent international recognition, culminating in the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.